When Deva Fest came to us, they weren’t just planning a music festival -  they were building a standout cultural experience in the North West.

Their goals?

• Turn loyal fans into early bookers
  
• Grow reach organically
  
• Make pre-sale the hottest ticket in town
  
  

The Sticking Points

• Needed to grow year-on-year momentum
  
• Competing for attention in a crowded UK festival scene
  
• Wanted early sales to boost cash flow and sell-out potential
  
• Low awareness outside of core audience
  
• No structured strategy to ride the post-festival buzz
  
• Google Ads platform was running at a loss - even branded terms couldn’t deliver a positive ROAS
  

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We didn’t just run a few ads and hope for sunshine. We built a multi-channel marketing launch designed to capture hype, drive urgency and get tickets flying out before the general public even knew what hit them. From CRM segmentation and paid lead gen to influencer seeding and Google Ads overhaul, we helped Deva Fest turn early interest into actual sales - fast.

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The Strategy That Set the Stage

We tapped into the two biggest emotions in festival marketing: FOMO and nostalgia. Here’s how we turned both into serious ticket sales - and made Google Ads a profitable growth channel for the first time:

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1. Exclusive Pre-Sale Access

We gave email subscribers VIP treatment with early access to tickets, one hour before launch.

• Created a real sense of urgency + reward
• Drove a 23% email click-through rate
• Took 100s of eager buyers out of the market before launch even began

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2. Riding the Post-Festival Buzz

Timing is everything. We launched the pre-sale while people were still uploading stories from the weekend - making sure the vibe (and the ticket link) stayed alive.

• Organically posted ticket links across socials
• Captured demand while attendees were still emotionally invested

Result? Over half of Tier 1 tickets sold within days!

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3. Meta Lead Forms That Actually Work

We used smart, low-friction lead forms to build a quality pre-sale list - fast and cheap.

• Targeted fans and lookalikes across Meta platforms
• Captured leads at just £0.51 each
• Created a high-intent audience primed to convert

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4. Influencer Marketing: Real People, Real Buzz

Festival-goers trust people, not posters. So we gave gifted tickets to micro-influencers who brought the energy to life.

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🎤 36 local content creators
📸 287 Instagram Stories
📽️ 58 Reels & Posts
🎁 6 Competitions
📧 1 Newsletter + 1 Blog feature

📊 Reach: 446,000+ organic views
❤️ 32,000+ likes
💬 800+ comments
💡 Content goldmine ready for next year’s campaigns

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5. Turning Google Ads From a Loss Into Profit

When we took over, Deva Fest’s Google Ads account was losing money - even with branded search terms included. The only conversions were coming from brand keywords, but:

• There were no competitors bidding on those terms
  
• The brand already dominated the first page organically
  
• Paid ads were cannibalising free traffic
  
  

Our fix?

We overhauled the entire account with a strategy focused on profitable, non-brand acquisition:

• Paired traditional search campaigns with Performance Max
• Focused entirely on non-branded search
• Cut waste by removing brand terms that delivered no incremental value

We restructured campaigns around intent-led themes, not just “festivals”:

• Pushed “day tickets” to users searching for “family days out” and similar high-converting interests
  
• “Family days out” became one of our most lucrative campaigns

We also added geotargeting, which hadn’t previously been used. Knowing the maximum travel distance most guests were willing to go:

• We excluded users too far from the site or not near transport links
• Maximised spend efficiency by only targeting those likely to convert

Final Result:

• 5.46x ROAS from non-brand terms alone
  
• Previously, the account had a negative ROAS overall - even with brand terms
  
  

The Results We’re Still Dancing About

• 260% YoY increase in pre-sale revenue
  
• Launch day figures beaten in just 36 minutes
  
• 60% of premium campsite sold
  
• Over half of Tier 1 tickets snapped up
  
• £0.51 CPL on Meta lead gen
  
• 446,000+ organic reach from influencer content
  
• Google Ads turned profitable for the first time - 5.46x ROAS from non-brand alone

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